We want our world to be healthy, as healthy as we would all like us to keep ourselves. Without a healthy Earth, there can't be a healthy us.

What can we do? We are but a small part of the world. We can teach our children, we can do the right thing even when no one else will. We can do our best. Don't spend a ton of money, just try to do what you can from your own little part of the world.

There are commercials my children really like. Those Frankenstein ones, where they tell you to conserve electricity. They are great, and they are right. Practice keeping off lights where no one is in the room. Turning off the tv, computer, and video games when leaving them. Rather than run the dryer a second time, hang up whatever is still wet. Keep coffee in a thermos instead of running the coffee maker all day(it also helps keep the coffee from getting that burnt taste).

I am not going to tell you to give up your car, I wouldn't even consider it. However, we do list all the trips we will need to make. Then we attempt to arrange them in a way that will take less gas, less time, and less usage on the car. Sometimes it works out wonderfully.

We keep the temperature in the house at around 70 degrees during the winter. Unfortunately, we also run the air conditioner like that.

Water-this is the biggest one in my house. It's our biggest usage so we focus on it most. Showers are a necessity, so they must be conducted wisely. All we need is about 5-10 minutes. Wash your hair, your body and get out (I say that all the time). Baths are necessary for the younger children and for longer time. If our backs hurt- fairly often-we run a bath, and put in epsom salts, and soak. You can stay in as long as you want that way. Then there are all the other usual things- turn the water off while brushing your teeth, do the dishes once a day so that you are not running partial loads, when watering the garden use as little time as possible and do it closer to the late evening, and of course, try to keep from washing four zillion loads of dirty clothes a week. Good luck- I haven't solved that last one yet. Children are way to young to keep their clothes in a condition close to clean.

Last year we planted a tree in our front yard, and next year we are going to start a vegetable garden. We do have a bit of garden running around our house, it isn't doing well this year. Maybe better next year.